Are you of the sanctions by refusing to disclose your assets to your banker ?

One of our client drives at BNP Paribas questions on the suites that the bank could give if he refuses to tell him in detail his heritage. The answer from our expert.

I am the holder of several accounts at BNP Paribas. I just received a letter from the establishment informing me that due to the fight against money laundering, I am legally required to of detail the whole of my property and financial assets. If I refuse to answer this request that I think is inquisitorial, is that I run the risk of sanctions ? René C., of Hornaing.

Like you, many of the customers of BNP Paribas, have received a letter asking them to provide detailed information on their activity and professional situation, their income, as well as the nature and extent of their assets are held both within the bank and in other institutions. This approach is presented as mandatory. The letter even features the phrase "Important-legal obligation" and refers to several articles of the French monetary and financial Code ", requiring-to-date knowledge of the customers".

A query that goes too far

By doing so, your advisor maintains a confusion between what emerges from the anti-money laundering and the matter of his professional obligations and duty and of the council with regard to its customers.

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The provisions relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism impose to your bank to send a report to the intelligence unit Tracfin, as soon as it is suspected of movements of funds of the nature, frequency or unusual amounts. The institution must seek to its clients the origin of the funds paid to or transiting on their accounts, and check the destination of the payments and transfers.

But the query which you object has nothing to do with this procedure. Your bank has the obligation to give you good advice, she needs to know you better. In this framework, the european directive on markets in financial instruments directive (MIFID) authorises it to periodically send you a "questionnaire of knowledge of the client".

On the other hand, in your case, BNP Paribas is going much too far. She can ask you questions on the compatibility between certain investments and your personal situation and heritage, but she has no right to require a detailed inventory of all your assets.

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You are absolutely not obliged to respond to this questionnaire and you do not risk any sanction, you will not.